A method, system, and computer program product are provided for virtualizing specific values in a guest configuration based on the underlying host symbol substitution values. A symbolic link located in a traditional file system in a virtual guest is opened. Each symbol is extracted from a symbol-based file located in a symbol-based file system. The symbol-based file is accessed through a symbolic link from the traditional file system. The virtual guest issues a privileged instruction to a hypervisor for each symbol in the symbol-based file to retrieve a substitution value from a symbol table that is stored in hypervisor storage. The substitution value for each symbol is returned to the virtual guest, and it replaces the symbol in the symbol-based file. In response to a file read request for the traditional file, the substitution value is retrieved from the symbol-based file using the symbolic link from the traditional file.